The discovery of vast reserves of rare-earth elements on a tiny Japanese island, that can be used in everything from iPhones to missile systems to electric vehicles, has been described as a "game changer." "This REY-rich mud has great potential as a rare-earth metal resource because of the enormous amount available and its advantageous mineralogical features," the study reads. The study shows that more than 16 million tons of rare-earth elements could be "exploited in the near future." Including ytrrium (Y), which is used in products like camera lenses and mobile phone screens, the rare-earth elements found are: Europium (EU),...

US authorities are to examine Roman Abramovich’s ties to the Kremlin as part of a national security review of a $2.3bn (Ł1.18bn) bid for Oregon Steel by a company controlled by the Russian billionaire. Experts in Washington say the US government panel that reviews foreign deals will scrutinise the proposed takeover, announced last month, more closely if Mr Abramovich is found to be acting with the backing of the Russian government. Mr Abramovich is believed to be close to Vladimir Putin, Russian president. The Russian steel company, Evraz, is controlled by Mr Abramovich and Alexander Abramov, group director. Evraz and...

After months of secret negotiations, a shadowy Russian bilked American spies out of $100,000 last year, promising to deliver stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons in a deal that he insisted would also include compromising material on President Trump, according to American and European intelligence officials. The cash, delivered in a suitcase to a Berlin hotel room in September, was intended as the first installment of a $1 million payout, according to American officials, the Russian and communications reviewed by The New York Times. The theft of the secret hacking tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency was...

Scientists believe a massive object that could change our understanding of history is hidden beneath the Antarctic ice. The huge and mysterious “anomaly” is thought to be lurking beneath the frozen wastes of an area called Wilkes Land. The area is 151 miles across and has a minimum depth of about 2,700 feet. Some researchers believe it is the remains of a truly massive asteroid more than twice the size of the Chicxulub space rock that wiped out the dinosaurs. If this explanation is true, it could mean this killer asteroid caused the Permian-Triassic extinction event, which killed 96 percent...

Parsons says that although 1872 Mining Law reform has passed in the U.S. House it remains stuck in the Senate. “It is literally one person on the U.S. Senate who stops it at every turn, and that’s Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and he does so because he’s beholden to the mining interests because he’s dependent on them for his reelection in Nevada,” Parsons said.

A New Orleans man was booked with felony theft Wednesday (Oct. 4) after FBI security cameras and security guards spotted him stealing copper from a construction project at the FBI New Orleans Field Office, according to a local FBI spokesman. Michael Bailey, 39, is accused of taking the copper from a construction zone on federal property, specifically the new visitor center being built at the FBI New Orleans Field Office at 2901 Leon C. Simon Blvd. The theft occurred about 6 p.m. Sept. 22, according to the FBI New Orleans Field Office. Through video surveillance and eyewitnesses, including security guards,...

Gold prices were trading at the highest level in almost a year on Tuesday as investors flocked to the safe haven on heightened tensions between North Korea and Japan. Trading solidly above the key psychological level of $1,300 on the news of a North Korea missile launch over Japan's airspace...

Democrat super-lobbyist Tony Podesta was paid $170,000 over a six-month period last year to represent Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, seeking to end one of the Obama administration’s economic sanctions against that country, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned. Podesta, founder and chairman of the Podesta Group, is listed as a key lobbyist on behalf of Sberbank, according to Senate lobbying disclosure forms. His firm received more than $24 million in fees in 2016, much of it coming from foreign governments, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Goldman Sachs is bullish on space mining with "asteroid-grabbing spacecraft." In a 98-page note for clients seen by Business Insider, analyst Noah Poponak and his team argue that platinum mining in space is getting cheaper and easier, and the rewards are becoming greater as time goes by. "While the psychological barrier to mining asteroids is high, the actual financial and technological barriers are far lower. Prospecting probes can likely be built for tens of millions of dollars each and Caltech has suggested an asteroid-grabbing spacecraft could cost $2.6bn," the report says. $2.6 billion (Ł2 billion) sounds like a lot, but...

Remote-controlled robots will journey to the bottom of the ocean in search of copper, nickel, cobalt, gold, and platinum as global demand for minerals surges. The world's first deep-sea mining operation will kick off in early 2019 when a Canadian firm, Nautilus Minerals Inc., lowers a trio of massive remote-controlled mining robots to the floor of the Bismarck Sea off the coast of Papua New Guinea in pursuit of rich copper and gold reserves. The machines, each the size of a small house, are equipped with rock-crushing teeth resembling the large incisors of a dinosaur. The robots will lumber across...

Today, Arctic Star Exploration Corp. (ADD.V) reported to have started permitting for a drill program on its wholly owned CAP Property, located within the central parts of the Rocky Mountain Rare Metal Belt, 80 km northwest of Prince George in British Columbia, Canada. In 2010, Arctic Star acquired this property for its potential to host niobium-tantalum and/or rare earth elements ("REEs"). Since then, these commodities have undergone a dramatic shift in demand owing in part to their usage in the green energy sector, which includes modern wind turbines, rechargeable batteries, catalytic convertors etc. Past exploration identified a large anomaly to...

After Bitcoin, Chinese Go Crazy About Silver By Valentin Schmid, Epoch Times July 5, 2016 AT 3:30 PM Last Updated: July 7, 2016 12:06 pm Chinese speculators have the reputation of buying anything and everything that is going up. Real estate, the stock market, copper, bitcoin, and now silver. Futures in Shanghai reached their upside limit when prices hit $21.13 per ounce, up 6.9 percent on the day. Chinese are behind the bulk of the buying as volumes on the Shanghai futures exchange exploded to 95 billion yuan ($14.2 billion) last Friday. The price has since retreated to a tad...

Tyler Durden March 3, 2016One month ago, when looking at the latest Canadian official international reserves, we noticed something strange: Canada had sold nearly half of its gold reserves in one month. According to the February data, total Canadian gold reserves stood at 1.7 tonnes. That was just 0.1 per cent of the country’s total reserves, which also include foreign currency deposits and bonds. As we noted, the decision to sell came from Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s office. “Canada’s gold reserves belong to the Government of Canada, and are held under the name of the Minister of Finance,” explained a...

UCLA scientists inject silicon carbide nanoparticles into a magnesium zinc alloy. The result is a metal with 'record breaking' strength and stiffness-to-weight.Scientists at UCLA have found a new way to inject silicon carbide nanoparticles into a molten alloy of magnesium and zinc, resulting a metal nanocomposite that demonstrates "record levels" of stiffness-to-weight and specific strength, and "superior stability" at high temperatures. Magnesium is already the lightest structural metal, this lab creation maintains its light weight but makes it much stronger. The researchers said they also developed a scalable manufacturing process, opening up a door to lighter and stronger cars, planes,...

I just read â€śSteel: from Mine to Mill, the Metal that Made Americaâ€ť (2015) by Brooke C. Stoddard. The engineer in me recommends it. The history buff in me recommends it as well. Copper, bronze, and brass are far simpler for primitive manufacture than is steel. Copper is an element, bronze and brass are alloys of copper and tin or zinc, respectively. Steel is an alloy of iron and a low but nonzero amount of carbon. And also, importantly, no phosphorus, which some iron ores contain. Iron ore is iron oxide, and it must be reduced chemically by carbon while...

A couple of readers asked me to comment on the news Regulator Fines Barclays Over the Pricing of Gold. A British financial regulator has fined Barclays $43.9 million after accusing a former trader at the bank of improperly influencing gold prices at the expense of a customer. The F.C.A. also fined the former Barclays trader, Daniel James Plunkett, Ł95,600 and barred him from participating in any regulated financial activity. The authority said Mr. Plunkett, who settled with it, had profited at the expense of a customer, who was later fully compensated by Barclays. Mr. Plunkett’s improper conduct occurred on June...

With countless settlements documenting the rigging of every single asset class, it was only a matter of time before the regulators - some 10 years behind the curve as usual - finally cracked down on gold manipulation as well, even though as we have shown in the past, central banks in general and the Fed in particular are among the biggest gold manipulators. That said, we are confident by now nobody will be surprised that there was manipulation going on in the gold casino. In fact, ever since Germany's Bafin launched a probe into Deutsche Bank for gold and silver...

Tyler Durden 11/25/2015 When it comes to commodity metals, the dead cat no longer bounces. We showed this last night in "No End In Sight For Commodity Carnage As Chinese Fear Fed Hike Blowback", a post which can be summarized with the following chart showing that at least for nickel, copper, zinc, iron ore and aluminum it will be a very unhappy holiday season: The one-word reason for this condition: China, which as documented extensively in the past, has clammed down on its unprecedented credit creation now that its debt/GDP is well over 300% and as a result conventional industries...

Tyler Durden 11/16/2015 Shanghai Copper is down 4.6%, hitting fresh cycle lows not seen since March 2009. No clear catalyst is evident for now aside from stronger USDollar, Codelco's cuts, and more chatter of CCFD unwinds. If COMEX Copper holds these losses, it will be down for 10 straight days - the longest on record from what we could tell. Copper is crashing in China... (snip)